1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a small-sized video camera and more particularly to a specific positional relation of component elements of the video camera by which the adverse effects of camera shakes can be minimized.
2. Description of the Related Art
The video cameras of today are arranged to be very small and light in size and weight. Some of them on the market can be easily placed in a small bag.
In these small-sized video cameras, a positional relation between a trigger switch which is provided for a start and a stop of recording of information obtained through a lens on a recording medium which is loaded on the video camera and a zoom switch which is provided for varying the zoom ratio of the lens is as shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings. As shown, the trigger switch 11 is positioned to be pushable with the thumb and the zoom switch 12 to be pushable with the index and middle fingers, so that the camera can be operated with one hand.
However, with the video camera arranged in the above-stated manner, it is very difficult to operate the camera at a low angle in shooting an object from below or in shooting an object located in a low place. To solve this problem, some video cameras have been proposed to be arranged as follows:
(a) The trigger switch and the zoom switch are arranged on one and the same plane. PA1 (b) In addition to the ordinary trigger switch, another trigger switch is provided on the front side of the video camera for low angle shooting. PA1 (c) The camera is provided with a trigger switch and a zoom switch which are arranged for low angle shooting in addition to the ordinary trigger switch and the ordinary zoom switch. PA1 (a) While these switches are positioned to permit low angle shooting, it is still difficult to operate switches disposed on one and the same plane, because they are not in sight during the process of shooting. PA1 (b) During the low angle shooting, the trigger switch is operated by a left hand. However, since the left hand is used also to aid camera holding, the trigger switch operation with the left hand degrades camera holding stability and thus results in an image shake. PA1 (c) The problem as to the operability of the camera can be eliminated by providing the low-angle shooting trigger and zoom switches in addition to the ordinary trigger and zoom switches. However, the provision of these additional switches brings forth another problem in connection with reduction in size and cost.
However, the above-stated proposals (a), (b) and (c) have the following problems respectively:
The most serious of the above-stated problems is the occurrence of the image shake. Therefore, a shooting image plane can be prevented from being affected by camera shakes by varying and controlling a position at which signals are read from an image sensor, a memory or the like of the video camera according to the degree and direction of the shakes or by resiliently buoying the optical system of the video camera from the camera body by means of a gimbals or a tripod head.
These camera shake preventing methods have effectively prevented the adverse effect of camera shakes. However, all these camera shake preventing methods are aimed only at the prevention of the shooting image plane from being affected by camera shakes. Meanwhile, no research has been conducted with regard to any adverse effect of the camera shakes on the precision mechanism parts of the video camera.